Month: August 2014

Many years ago, while working part-time at Barnes & Noble, I started a book titled Inkheart. It was the first book in a trilogy by a children’s author named Cornelia Funke.

Cornelia Funke

The story, like all Cornelia Funke’s books, was a magical story for children. The leading character, Mo, was given a gift which turned into a curse. Whenever he read books aloud, the characters came to life!

Although the story was intriguing, it seemed to drag on, resulting in my placing the book aside with hopes of completion at a later date. Needless to say, after the fire, I found myself unable to finish MANY books I had started. Inkheart was one of those books.

This weekend, I decided to treat myself to the movie of Inkheart – released in 2008.

If the movie ends as I suspect, I’ll be ordering the next two books in the trilogy pretty darned soon!

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I absolutely LOVE studying the Bible.

But to be honest, I’ve been afraid to dive too deep into the Book of Revelation.

I’m afraid I won’t understand the Prophecy.

I learned years ago it’s okay to use the Table of Contents in your Bible. I learned it’s okay to ask for help understanding what’s written, if you can’t understand it yourself. I learned it’s okay to use Biblical resources and reference tool – as long as you consider the validity of the resource.

When I saw the title and author of this book, I got SO EXCITED! If you’re not familiar with the name Tim LaHaye, he is a co-author of The Left Behind Series.

I opened the book yesterday and KNOW without a doubt this is going to be a GREAT journey! More to come soon!

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When I was a little girl, my mother’s mother came to stay with our family about 6 months out of the year. I have many fond memories of my grandmother, and thought I’d share just a few:

1. At 1:00 pm EVERY WEEK DAY (I may be off on the time, but I think that’s correct) EVERYTHING STOPPED! It was time for Grandma to watch As the World Turns!

2. Whenever our family would go to the mall, my grandmother would ALWAYS buy our family SPECIAL TREATS from the bakery!

3. When grandma would leave to go back to Illinois, she would always leave my sister and I a special gift. She would leave some dusting powder or the remaining perfume in one of her many bottles. I remember feeling SO SPECIAL and BEAUTIFUL – not to mention how excited I would be to check her room (the guest room) after she left!

4. Grandma’s birthday was on Christmas Day. I remember my mother always bought her TWO dresses. One she would wrap in Christmas wrapping paper and one she would wrap in Birthday wrapping paper.

5. I remember all of us searching HIGH AND LOW for Grandma’s favorite perfume – I can’t remember why we had such a difficult time locating it, but I will ALWAYS remember the name!

6. My grandmother baked homemade bread – and it was DELICIOUS! I can still remember the smell of fresh bread baking in the kitchen every couple of weeks.

7. I remember our family taking Grandma to the airport to go back to Illinois. In those days, Patrick Henry Airport in Newport News had a viewing deck where you could watch the planes take off and land.

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If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’re familiar with the recent discovery of my birth mother. You may have read the post I wrote concerning Social Service’s contact with my birth mother and her agreement to share her identity with me. If you haven’t read the posts, and are interested in doing so, they start here:

I have been pondering what to write about our reunion ever since I returned home on August 3, 2014. To be honest, it is extremely difficult to articulate how I felt when I never dreamed I would ever find my birth mother, let alone meet her.

If you weren’t adopted, it’s difficult to explain the awkwardness of meeting your birth mother (at the age of 51), after being raised by an AMAZING mother, while your birth mother was mothering her other children. The realization that I wasn’t missed, while realizing there was no reason for me to have been missed, I didn’t miss her (or any of them) either. Our family designs were ultimately coordinated by the Creator of the Universe and I was loved beyond measure.

When I returned home afterward, I wasn’t sure what happened next. I wasn’t sure how the rest of MY family would be integrated into this new family or if any of them (on EITHER SIDE) would want to be. So many questions. So many uncertainties.

When I came home today, I checked the mail to find a package from my birth mother. Although the envelope was addressed to me, the package contained birthday gifts for both of my daughters. The gifts were beautifully packaged and I was so excited to delivery them to each of my daughters. I was speechless when they opened the boxes and revealed their very special gifts.